Russian draughts · Variants

Russian flying kings

Russian draughts stays on an 8 by 8 board, but kings still fly along open diagonals.

4 min · 3 steps

This is the written edition of an interactive Boardgammon lesson — in the app, the coach narrates while you play every move on a live board.

Step 1 · Kings fly on 8 by 8

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On the board: Flying diagonal

Russian draughts stays on an 8 by 8 board, but kings still fly along open diagonals.

Coach narration

Step 2 · What makes the king different?

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The king can see a capture farther down the diagonal. How does it move?

Choose the Russian king rule.

Quick check

  • It flies along open diagonals
  • It only moves one square
  • It slides straight along rows and columns
Show the correct answer

Correct answer: It flies along open diagonals — Correct. Russian kings have long diagonal range.

  • It only moves one square — Short kings belong to English checkers, not Russian draughts.
  • It slides straight along rows and columns — That is how Turkish Dama pieces move. Russian draughts is still a diagonal game.

Coach narration

Step 3 · Fly to capture

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On the board: Fly

Use your king's long range to land beyond the captured piece.

Tap the king, then tap the far highlighted landing square.

The move: 18x32

Flying capture complete.

Common mistake: Follow the highlighted diagonal past the captured piece.

Coach narration

What you learned

You can now identify Russian flying kings and use their long diagonal capture range.

Coach narration